Children of Blood (Kat Drummond Book 13) by Nicholas Woode-Smith

Author:Nicholas Woode-Smith [Woode-Smith, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2021-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12. Bus

Albert yelled for help again. He went silent after a harsh, sharp thud. I didn’t wait for Conrad and Jane to follow.

We were being attacked!

“Scout ahead, Treth!” I yelled, surging forward. My coat flared in excitement.

“Commander!” Voices called, seeing me through the ash. I was a beacon.

Thud, thud, thud. Bullets collided into the wall behind me, just as I fell to my knees, sliding on now wet tiles.

“Kat!” Treth exclaimed, appearing by my side.

“What is it?!” I hissed, through gritted teeth. My coat was much less eager to glow and was now more reminiscent of cinders.

“I can hardly see a blasted thing,” Treth continued. “But they’ve blocked the doors!”

“Any vampires?”

“Not that I can see…”

Bullets whizzed through his ethereal body, not even displacing it.

I ducked low, leopard-crawling to cover. I found some behind two Crusaders, lying on top of each other as if in embrace when they were gunned down. I was lying in their blood.

“No vampires,” Treth continued. “But there’re a lot of ghouls. And they’re organised! All armed. Better than we are.”

I gritted my teeth. We weren’t ready for this! We were still recovering from the miserable nights. The day was meant to bring us some respite!

“The ash is blocking the windows. But how did they get in without being burnt?” I asked.

Screams and shouting broke off my train of thought. Without waiting for Treth to reply, I shot upwards, Ithalen at the ready. I swung my shining blade towards the ash and smoke. The smoke smelled like fireworks. Not the acrid stench of fire. Smoke grenades!

They really were organised.

I cleared a wall of smoke and came face to face with three ghouls. They had dark grey skin, taut on their wiry frames. Their red eyes glowed, angrily, as they bared their vampiric fangs. They levelled their guns at me. Military-grade rifles. They fired.

I ducked low, as Treth shot forward, shoving a ghoul off balance.

Many people confused ghouls and zombies.

Low to the ground, I swept a ghoul onto the floor, skewering it in the head with Ithalen before rolling to the side. The automatic fire turned the skewered ghoul into mincemeat.

But ghouls and zombies couldn’t be farther apart.

Treth teleported in front of me, deflecting a volley of rounds with his shield, disappearing as I lunged forward into the shocked ghoul. It gurgled on my blade.

Zombies were mindless, slavering beasts. They did not feel pain. They couldn’t plan. They could only feast and ravage.

The surviving ghoul backed up, ejecting its mag as it tried to reload. With a flourish, I separated its hand from its wrist. I drew my dagger with my free hand and stuck it in its belly. Again, and again.

Ghouls were smart. They could plan. They could use tools.

But they could also feel pain.

I disembowelled the beast and let it fall. It may recover if its sire gave it some blood, but we’d have purged its corpse before that could happen. If we didn’t have the chance, then we’d have worse things to worry about by then.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.